Wishes, Dreams, and Botan
by omasuoniwabanshi
Summary: Botan disappears, and while trying to find her, Yusuke's team stumbles on a plot to take over Koenma's castle. COMPLETE please R&R!
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho, characters or plot. I'm merely borrowing them.

Note to readers: In case you get confused, Kurama – the red headed rose-whip wielding member of Yusuke Urameshi's team – is also known by his human name, Suichi Minamino. His mother, a human, is completely unaware that her son was once a master thief/fox demon from the spirit world named Yoko Kurama, though among his friends he now goes by 'Kurama'.

CHAPTER ONE: Botan Disappears

Kurama sat at his desk gazing down at a piece of paper. His homework was completed and he'd just begun to write a letter when his mother knocked softly, and opened his bedroom door.

"Suichi, a friend from Sarayashiki Junior High is here to see you."

Botan, wearing the distinctive blue sailor suit outfit that Sarayashiki favored for its female students, bounced in with a cheerful "Hello!"

Mrs. Minamino glanced at Kurama, who nodded slightly to let her know that Botan's visit was welcome. "Would you like some tea?" she asked Botan politely.

Reminded of her manners by the question, Botan clasped her hands together and bowed properly. "Thanks very much, but no." she answered, straightening up again. "I'll only be a few minutes. I just have to ask Suichi's advice on our school festival." Botan continued, obviously making up her story as she went along. "His high school did such a super job on their festival last year that I thought I'd ask his advice for ours!"

Mrs. Minamino smiled. "Then I'll leave you two alone. Please let me know if you change your mind about the tea." She bowed and left, closing the door softly behind her.

His mother, reflected Kurama, was the soul of tact. Though she hadn't shown it by word, gesture or expression, he knew she was thrilled that he had a visitor. She worried a lot about his supposed lack of friends. He knew she blamed herself, or rather her illness a year ago. He'd spent most of his free time back then taking care of her when she'd been sick. Kurama sighed inwardly, marveling at the complexities of human relationships, the delicate dance of emotional interactions that he'd never really cared about before his human mother had nearly died, and he'd realized how much he'd come to care about her.

"What're you writing?" During his introspection, Botan had moved close enough to peer over his shoulder at the desk.

Kurama drew a blank sheet over his letter to Sara, his English pen pal. He preferred letters to email, since it forced him to practice writing English alphabet letters, so different from the Japanese Kanji characters he used on a daily basis.

"Just a letter." Kurama replied vaguely.

Botan leaned over his shoulder, reminding him of an inquisitive bird perched on a tree branch, and waited for him to say more. When he didn't, she stepped back and laughed. "To a girl I suppose." Her eyes took on a gleeful sparkle. "Don't worry, your secret is safe with me. I won't tell the others about your love letters."

"I appreciate your discretion," said Kurama dryly, turning in his chair to face the irrepressible ferry girl, "but I doubt you came here to check on my correspondence."

"Oh, right." The silvery blue ponytail bounced as the girl straightened up to attention. "I almost forgot. Koenma called a meeting tonight in his office. Can you bring Yusuke and Kuwabara?"

"Of course." Kurama nodded.

"Great!" Botan clapped her hands together. "I'll tell Hiei on my way to my last job."

"Agreed."

"Good." Botan nodded, then caught sight of a small trophy that Kurama's mother had insisted he set out on top of his bookcase. She stepped over to it, and caught it up in her hands, like a magpie pouncing on a shiny treasure. "What's this?"

Kurama stood, took it from her gently and placed it back in its former position. "My club's booth took first prize at the school festival last year."

Botan stared at him for a moment, then burst into laughter. "I guess I couldn't have made up a better story about needing to talk to you if I'd tried!" she giggled.

Against his will, Kurama smiled back at her. Botan's laughter was infectious. It was one of the things that endeared her to the team. Though to an outsider, Botan's cheeriness might appear foolish or ditzy, the girl was actually quite perceptive.

Kurama folded his arms and leaned against his desk, presenting a barrier between the girl and the letter resting on it. Ever since she'd picked up the trophy, she'd been angling closer to it.

"What last job do you have left to do today?" asked Kurama, attempting to distract her.

"What? Oh, I have to go pick up one last soul for the spirit world. I am a ferry girl, you know." Thwarted in her effort to get to the letter, Botan's attention shifted back to the bookcase. Touching her forefinger to her chin, she paraded up and down before it, glancing quickly over the shelves. "You sure have a lot of awards, Kurama." She commented, nodding at the plaques and framed certificates.

"My mother insists I display them. It makes her happy." He explained simply. If it were up to him, he'd pack them away in a drawer somewhere. Seeing a warm expression enter her eyes, he forestalled whatever gushing comment she planned to make by asking, "Why does Koenma want to see us?"

Botan frowned, and leaned back against the bookcase. "Koenma didn't say much, but I could tell something's up. Everyone in the castle is unusually tense. Koenma's dad is away for the next six months, so that always adds to the boss's workload, and makes him cranky. But it's something more than that. There's rumors that a group of demons are planning something big. Have you ever had the feeling someone was watching you from out of the corner of their eye?"

Botan waited to Kurama to nod, then went on. "That's what it feels like in the castle, like everyone is watching everyone else." She lifted her chin slightly, coming to a decision. "I'll try to find out more from my contacts after I pick up my last soul for the day."

Her gaze shifted past Kurama to something on the shelf above his desk. Since it wasn't the letter, he allowed her to brush past his shoulder to reach for it.

Capturing a framed photograph, she moved back and smiled down at it. It was a picture of his family before his father's death. Kurama's human mother was holding his two-year old form in her arms while his father smiled with her into the camera, his arm draped protectively around his wife's shoulders.

"Look at this, you were so cute as a baby!"

Kurama winced inwardly. Botan being sentimental was only slightly less tiresome than Botan being inquisitive. He took the picture away from her.

"When do you have to pick up your last soul?"

"Oh not for a while." answered Botan carelessly.

"Ah." Kurama noticed Botan's eyes were still glued to the picture.

She cocked her head. "Why didn't your parents have more children?"

It was an oddly intrusive question, even for Botan, but Kurama answered.

"They couldn't. My human mother only had me because I used my spirit energy to temporarily fix her body so that she could conceive."

It had seemed so simple at the time. His Yoko spirit form, grievously injured, dying actually, had escaped to the human realm through a hastily arranged portal, expending nearly all the spirit energy he'd had left. The portal had dumped him in a park where his human mother and father had been walking on their way to a doctor's appointment. Yoko-Kurama's fox spirit ears had been quick to pick up their conversation, their fears they would never conceive, their need to find out why, and the solution to his problem fell right into his lap. They'd wanted a child, he'd needed a place to hide and recuperate, so he'd fixed his mother's womb and become her child. Now he marveled at his arrogance. If the demons pursuing him had ever found out about his human parents...what they would have done to the human couple didn't bear thinking about.

What did bear thinking about was Botan's interest. "Why do you ask?"

"No reason." Botan shrugged and stepped away from the desk. "Well, I'd better get going. It wouldn't look good if the grim reaper was late picking up a soul!" She flashed him a smile. "I'll tell you what I can find out about the rumors in the meeting." And with that, she was through the door and gone.

Kurama gazed after her a moment, then picked up the phone to call Yusuke and Kuwabara. Sometimes it was a distinct pain to be the only member of Team Urameshi to own a car.

"Hiei? Hiei?" Botan wandered around the trees of the park, gazing up distractedly. She knew Hiei was somewhere near the trees, the question was where?

"Hn." The terse syllable came from right behind her. She whirled, and faced the diminutive black clad form.

"Hiei! You scared me! Must you always sneak up on a girl like that?"

Hiei muttered something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like "Baka," the Japanese word for idiot, but apart from that stared at her silently, waiting for an explanation.

Botan collected herself and said, "Koenma wants to have a meeting tonight."

"And this would interest me why exactly?" asked Hiei, eyes narrowed.

"Because you're still one of Koenma's operatives." Botan informed him, then decided to sweeten the unpleasant reminder. "And we need your help."

Hiei gave her a glance that clearly agreed with her statement about needing help. "Fine." He said, and disappeared back into the trees so quickly that he was just a blur.

"OK then. Thanks." Called out Botan uncertainly, not sure that Hiei was still within earshot. Sighing, she transformed into her pink kimono, called her wooden oar, hopped on and flew away muttering to herself about rude demons.

Koenma's office was a mess, as usual. Stacks of papers lay on his desk, on the floor, on chairs, etc. as the toddler sucked his pacifier fiercely and rubber-stamped papers as fast as Jorge, the ogre, passed them to him. Meanwhile, other blue or red skinned ogres delivered more papers by setting them on the floor, retreating immediately under Koenma's glares.

Hiei arrived first, walking purposefully to the center of the room. Koenma spared him a brief hello, and told him to take a seat, ignoring the fact that all the chairs in the room had papers on them.

Hiei stalked to the back of the office and sat down abruptly on the floor, his sword sticking out along the wall like a pointing finger.

Soon Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Kurama entered the room, Yusuke and Kuwabara good-naturedly bickering while Kurama looked on.

"Ah, good. You're all here." Koenma slammed his rubber stamp down on the latest stack of papers on his desk, inadvertently stamping down on the fingers of the blue-skinned ogre who placed them there. Ignoring the ogre's howl of pain, Koenma waved him impatiently out of the way and ordered all the ogres from the room.

When the last ogre had gone, Koenma moved a stack of papers out of his way on the desk, and stood on his chair.

"People, we have a problem."

Team Urameshi stood together and waited, Hiei glowering with crossed arms, Kurama patiently with an inquisitive expression, Kuwabara with barely repressed eagerness, and Yusuke, the leader, black eyes sharp with anticipation.

"Someone, or I should say something is trying to infiltrate the castle."

"So call out your guards." Suggested Yusuke. "You don't need us when you've got a bazillion ogres running around."

"That's the problem." Koenma leaned forward, his baby hands clenched into fists. "It could be one of them. It could already be here."

"We'll protect you!" Kuwabara swaggered up to the desk, hooking his thumb at his chest. "I'm the toughest kid at Sarayashiki junior high. I'll be your bodyguard."

Koenma stared as Hiei snorted derisively. "Thanks, but I'd rather have you out in the field using your ability to sense spirit energy."

"Oh yeah. I'm good at that too." Kuwabara congratulated himself and strutted back to the group.

"Now Botan will give you your assignments and..." Koenma glanced around the group. "Where is she?"

"She's not with you?" Yusuke asked. "You lost her?"

Koenma bristled. "I am the ruler of the Spirit Realm. I do not 'lose' my ferry girls. OGRE!" He ended on a yell.

The blue skinned servant ran in quickly. "Yes sir?"

"Where's Botan?" Koenma snapped.

The ogre began wringing his hands. "Well, sir, you see she didn't come in yet, and ..." he trailed off, aware of Koenma's basilisk stare.

"You LOST her?!?"

"Um, I guess you could say that. Yes." The ogre bowed his head and shuffled his feet.

Kurama stepped forward. Reassured at the prospect of meeting anyone but Koenma's accusing eyes, the ogre ventured a glance at him.

"Did Botan deliver her last soul for the day?"

The ogre quickly whipped out a small notebook and consulted it. "No, no she didn't."

Kurama turned to Koenma. "Botan mentioned that she was going to try to investigate the rumors about some sort of attack on the castle after picking up her last soul. She seemed a bit distracted. She said that she was going to tell Hiei about the meeting. Since Hiei is here," Kurama gestured at the small black clad demon, "we can only assume Botan disappeared sometime between leaving Hiei and the time she was supposed to arrive back at the castle."

Koenma plucked his pacifier out of his mouth and began swinging it as he stepped up on the desk and began pacing around stacks of papers. "So, since picking up souls isn't exactly dangerous work, we can assume that Botan did go on to investigate the rumors. If she told Kurama that she intended to investigate, then she might have let it slip here as well. If the castle has already been infiltrated, then whoever is behind this plot probably knew about her plans and nabbed her to keep her from finding out anything."

Koenma stopped and jabbed a finger toward the group. "You've got two jobs now, Yusuke. Find out whoever's planning an attack on the castle and stop them, and find Botan."

Yusuke nodded. "You got it."

"Then what are you standing around for?" Koenma popped his pacifier back in his mouth and waved his hands around agitatedly. "Get going!"

The team moved out, Hiei striding around them to be first out the door, Kurama noticing, and smiling to himself with Kuwabara and Yusuke trailing behind.

"Second." Yusuke said to Kuwabara.

"Second what?" asked the sandy haired teen.

"You're the second toughest kid at Sarayashiki Junior High." Yusuke challenged.

"Why you..."

The sounds of their quarrel faded as they made their way out of the office. Koenma threw himself back in his chair and crossed his arms, uncharacteristically silent.

"Boss?" Jorge the ogre glanced at him worriedly.

"Botan," Koenma muttered under his breath, "Where are you?"

END OF CHAPTER ONE

Please review and let me know if you liked chapter one. Chapter two will have more action in it, (Hiei and Kurama battle a large green ogre) I promise!


	2. Investigating

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho characters or plot.

Thanks to reviewers, Crystal Koneko and Moments of Insanity for finding my story interesting, Tsume-Hiei Luver for encouraging me to continue, and Cwolf2 – thanks for the compliment! I struggle with Botan at times because it's hard to maintain her chipper attitude without making her annoying to the readers. Any advice on this is welcome!

CHAPTER TWO: INVESTIGATING

Team Urameshi gathered outside Koenma's office as beleaguered ogres hurried by or stopped to hike up their stacks of papers. Small knots of blue, red, and a few green skinned ogres consulted in whispers and cast frightened glances at Koenma's door.

"What's with them?" asked Yusuke, jerking his head at a group of blue ogres holding a whispered consultation nearby, their expressions ranging from sullen to worried.

"I believe Botan mentioned that the atmosphere around the castle was unusually tense." Kurama offered reflectively. "I assume the rumors of an imminent attack have spread."

"Rumors Schmumors!" scoffed Kuwabara loudly, breaking off his quarrel with Yusuke to put his two cents in. "I'm going to find out who's behind the plot. Koenma trusts me to do the job." He ended on a note of pride, glaring at Yusuke as if daring him to contradict Koenma's verdict.

Yusuke rolled his eyes. "Oh please. He just said that to get rid of you."

"Did not!"

"Did too. And what's more, I'm the one who's going to find out who's behind the plot and make him wish he hadn't been born."

Kuwabara's face turned red, but before he could retort, Kurama stepped between the two boys and said, "If both of you plan to stay here to investigate who's behind the assault on the castle, then Hiei and I should go back to the human realm to retrace Botan's movements. Perhaps we can discover when and how she was taken."

He paused to look at Hiei, whose glare sent a perturbed group of nearby ogres scurrying back to their tasks, except one who dropped his stack of papers in fright. Kurama stifled a smile and continued. "Unless Hiei would prefer to remain in the Spirit Realm instead of finding Botan. He does, after all, have more experience in this realm than either of you." Kurama observed.

Yusuke smiled and pointed his finger like a gun. "All the experience I need is right here." he said, gesturing with the finger he used to concentrate his spirit energy blasts.

"Yeah, who needs experience? We'll break a few heads and get answers in no time." Kuwabara, quarrel forgotten, instinctively seconded his friend.

"Hiei?" Kurama lifted an eyebrow questioningly at the diminutive demon.

The black haired demon placed his hand on the sword hilt at his side and began stalking down the hall. "Let the humans do as they like. We're wasting time."

"Then back to the human realm it is." murmured Kurama, allowing Hiei to go past him before following, gazing speculatively at the smaller demon's retreating back.

He paused for a moment to write down the address of Botan's last soul pick up from a passing blue skinned ogre, who spat out the information, then ran off as soon as possible.

"Curious."

"What is?" asked Hiei impatiently, clenching his hand on his sword hilt and glaring down the hall at the ogre who was practically sprinting to get away.

"Ogres are never particularly shy, yet that one never looked me in the eye."

"He probably wanted to get out of here, as do I." growled Hiei accusingly, annoyed at the delay.

Kurama shrugged apologetically and began to walk. "You're right. Koenma's castle has an unhealthy feel to it. Even my human body has begun to sense it."

They set off down the corridor, found a portal, and emerged from it back into the human realm. Kurama convinced Hiei to allow him to drive them to the address. Hiei accepted with ill grace, distrustful of human machines, and got in muttering darkly about stupid ferry girls who couldn't take care of themselves.

"We're here." Kurama pulled up alongside a small house in a row of houses on a street across from a park. It was late, and most of the houses on the street were dark.

"Which is it?" asked Hiei.

Kurama opened his car door, got out, and pointed to a completely dark house in the middle of the block. No lights shined from windows or by the front door. "That one." he said, pointing.

In a blur of black, Hiei was gone and back within seconds, clutching a piece of paper. "No one's home. This was on the front door."

Kurama raised his eyebrows and accepted it. "It's a note to the babysitter explaining that the family won't need her tonight as they've gone to a relative's house, but they want her to come back tomorrow afternoon." Kurama folded the note and handed it back to Hiei. "This is interesting."

"I fail to see how."

"The note doesn't mention a death in the family. According to the castle records, Botan was sent to the backyard of this house to pick up the soul of a little girl named Mariko, yet if the family needs a babysitter tomorrow, it appears the little girl is still alive."

"So Botan never made it here." Hiei frowned at the empty house at if it were to blame.

"Perhaps not, but even so, why would the child still be alive? Ferry girls like Botan don't cause death, they merely escort the souls to the Spirit World after they die. Yet I don't sense any loose souls, do you?"

"What do I care about human souls?" shrugged Hiei. "How do we know there ever was a soul anyhow?"

"A ruse?" guessed Kurama. "Perhaps she was lured here by a false report of death?" He thought a moment. "If Koenma's fears are correct and the castle has already been infiltrated, it would be relatively easy for whoever is behind the plot to send Botan on a wild goose chase and capture her while she wasn't expecting it."

Hiei's eyes narrowed. "I will kill them." he decided.

Kurama glanced at him. "Well, there's nothing more we can do tonight. I suggest we come back tomorrow when the family is home. If the little girl looks healthy, we can assume that it was a false report. Who knows, the family may have seen something suspicious."

"Now." Hiei put his hand on his sword again.

It took all of Kurama's powers of persuasion to convince the fire demon to wait until the next day, since neither one of them knew the address of the relative the family had gone to visit. Eventually, Hiei grudgingly agreed to meet Kurama back at the address the next afternoon. As Kurama drove away, he saw Hiei disappear into the park, and smiled to himself. The fire demon wouldn't stray far from the last clue to Botan's disappearance.

When Kurama arrived the next afternoon, Hiei was sitting in the top branches of a tree, arms crossed, staring at the house. Kurama walked over, skirting a family that was trying to get a kite up in the air. The park was beginning to get busy now that schools were releasing students to make their way home.

"So, any movement?" asked Kurama, coming to a stop under Hiei's tree, and trying not to be obvious about the fact that he was speaking to someone up in the branches.

"No." replied Hiei shortly. "And that baka babysitter never showed up to read her note."

"Perhaps they telephoned her as well as leaving the note, then phoned again to say they were staying another day."

Hiei dropped out of the tree, landing gracefully upright, knees slightly bent to absorb the impact. He turned to Kurama with a look that spoke plainly of his opinion of humans who dared to change their plans when it inconvenienced him, and began striding over to the house.

Kurama's longer legs enabled him to catch up to the smaller demon in a few steps. "Shall we start with the back yard?" Kurama preferred to do his breaking and entering discreetly, though Hiei would much rather have marched up to the front door and kicked it open, regardless of witnesses. Once Hiei decided on a course of action, it was impossible to stop him, though he could, at times, be guided. Letting Hiei loose in a human's house while he was in a bad temper was a recipe for trouble.

Hiei agreed with a curt nod, and they made their way around the row of houses to the alleyway behind where the back fences of the homes abutted the cracked asphalt of the alley. Kurama felt his spirit senses come alive as his brain went into defense mode automatically.

Just as they reached the back fence of the house they wanted, an enormous beast crashed through it, sending splinters flying, and landed with a roar in the middle of the alley.

Hiei and Kurama split up, leaping out of its way. The beast looked roughly like a grossly over sized green ogre, only unlike the few green skinned ogres in Koenma's castle, it was a deeper shade of green, so dark that it was nearly black. It was also so muscle bound in its legs that they were more like animal haunches. Black eyes and four inch claws on its hands and feet completed the impression of a monstrous animal rather than a thinking humanoid being. The stench of its breath coming in puffs between its yellowed incisors seemed to hang like a cloud over the still air of the alleyway, already pungent with the scent of garbage cans. The beast moved its head this way and that, targeting first Hiei then Kurama with its obsidian colored eyes.

Deciding on the taller of its two opponents, it crouched down on its haunches, then leapt at Kurama, clawed hands outstretched.

Kurama's rose whip appeared in his hand in an instant. As he moved back, he coiled it then cracked it across the monster's palms.

The oversized ogre roared, twisted, and lunged at Hiei instead, presenting its back to Kurama, who stepped forward and brought his whip around to slice at the beast's backbone. That was when he noticed the tail. It was thicker at the base and tapered to an end that was encased with a metal tip liberally festooned with sharp spikes. The tail reared up to brush away Kurama's whip as the rest of the creature continued to lunge toward Hiei.

Hiei let it come, dodging away at the last minute, and sliced down with his katana, eldritch energy sparkling up the length of the Japanese sword. The metal connected with the huge ogres' claws, but did not slice through them. Instead, the blade stopped with a 'clank.' Hiei jumped back as the monster continued to move forward, clutching at him.

Meanwhile, Kurama followed the beast, his attempts to slice open its back foiled by the metal tipped tail. "Hiei! It's resistant to spirit energy." He called out.

"I know that." Huffed the fire demon, jumping aside as his massive opponent pressed forward, clawing at him with great sweeping motions.

Suddenly the green creature swerved and skewing its backside around, made a sweep with its tail that forced Kurama to jump forward quickly to join Hiei.

"We're being herded." Kurama realized aloud.

"Hn." grunted Hiei, his dark eyes glittering with excitement at the fight.

The alleyway led, not to another street, but to a dead end, a wall made out of firebricks, lined with dumpsters. A quick glance revealed that the dumpsters were set out far enough from the wall to be concealing any number of enemies crouching behind them.

"I'll take the ogre." said Kurama, for want of a better term to describe the large beast. Hiei immediately shifted to stand behind Kurama's back, facing the dumpsters.

The creature bellowed and lunged, forcing Kurama and Hiei to move back. By snapping his sharp-thorned whip at the monster's eyes, Kurama managed to slow its advance, causing it to raise its clawed hands to protect its face.

The beast truly was more beast-like than ogre, and with its oversized tail, its form was distinctly lizard-like. It didn't seem able to speak, though it possessed battle cunning. Kurama and Hiei allowed themselves to be herded, stepping effortlessly into the team work demanded in battle partners. Each time Kurama took a step back, Hiei sensed it and moved forward. They became a defensive square of two, each facing a different direction, and defending each other's back.

The massive creature stopped and drew its claws along the asphalt ground, the metallic black tips creating sparks and an eerie screeching noise.

Kurama didn't bother to ask Hiei if he were ready, for the fire demon was already plunging forward into the mass of green normal-sized ogres jumping out from behind the dumpster, obviously called to attack by the oversized ogre's signal.

The beast raised its claws and attempted to crush Kurama with a bear hug. The red head leapt back, but the monster's tail swung around in a blur and caught him on the side. If Kurama hadn't sensed it at the last minute, one of the metal spikes would have pierced him through. As it was, when he twisted away from the spikes, the fleshy part of the tail knocked him across the alley and into a wooden fence on the opposite side. He dropped to the ground, landing on his hands and knees.

Pain heightened Kurama's senses, a welcome side effect of owning a human body. He smelled the mixture of oil and dirt rising from the ground. He felt each individual bit of broken glass and rock pressing into his splayed hands. Narrowing his eyes, he drew in a breath. The beast was smarter than he'd thought, and a great deal faster. It had been playing with them, purposely moving slower than it could so they would underestimate its abilities.

So be it. Kurama's green eyes took on a determined glint, and he pushed his human body to the limit, rolling adroitly out of the way as the beast's tail went crashing down, its spikes imbedded into the pavement where Kurama had landed seconds before.

Rising to a crouch, Kurama gripped his rose whip and prepared for an assault. From behind him the cries of Hiei's opponents grew less and less as their members dwindled. Occasionally a clanking noise reached Kurama's ears as Hiei disarmed (both in the accepted sense of the word and a more gorily literal sense) those ogres who'd picked up pieces of rebar or wood as weapons.

The oversized ogre jumped up in the air towards Kurama, arms outstretched as if diving, and attempted to flatten him by landing on top of him in a manner that would have done a professional wrestler proud. It was a very unexpected move, and out of keeping with the lumbering, earth bound advances it had made previously.

Kurama hesitated. 'This,' he reflected with an inward wince, 'is going to hurt.' He jumped forward, under the belly of the beast, so it overshot him instead of landing square on top of him. The creature noticed immediately, and kicked out at Kurama with its back legs, catching him along his side. Kurama rolled with the blow, having anticipated it, and turned as he fell, flicking the rose whip along the beast's foot, effectively discouraging any additional kicks.

Rolling as he landed, the red head came to his feet, clutching at his sore side, and watched his green-skinned opponent pull its knees under itself until it was up on all fours. The beast shook its head as if to clear it of dizziness. Suddenly Hiei appeared at Kurama's side.

Grasping the lower edge of his black tunic style shirt, Hiei used the loose material to wipe ogre blood from his sword blade, and sheathed the weapon quickly, shoving it under the sash around his waist. Eyes never leaving the monster he asked, "Poison seed?"

"Yes." Kurama had delivered the fast acting seed via his rose whip, flicking it under the creature's toe-nail where it joined the blood stream and grew steadily along the inside of the veins, releasing poison spoors throughout the monster's body.

Since the large ogre had proved so adept at using its claws to repulse the whip, Kurama had had to come at it from an odd angle, flicking the whip behind and under the foot claws. The maneuver had forced him to come close to getting smashed, but it was effective.

The remains of Hiei's opponents lay scattered in pieces along the dumpsters. Kurama barely had time to make an approximate count when the oversized ogre staggered to its feet and burst through a nearby wood fence.

'The beast is certainly full of surprises.' thought Kurama as he and Hiei immediately chased after it. Despite its great size, Kurama figured it would be dead by now from the poison, not lumbering through the back garden and between houses out into the street.

In a burst of speed, Hiei jumped to the roof of one house then back down, landing in front of the creature on the sidewalk, attempting to block its path, but the beast swung its claws at him, the full power of its onward rush behind its arms. Hiei jumped away, using his sword to slice the beast's shoulder after it completed its swing.

It howled but did not turn around to confront the source of its pain. Instead, it blundered across the road and into the park where, Kurama realized with a thrill of horror, children were playing and innocent humans were out walking.

The monster had just crossed the sidewalk edging the park and stepped onto the grass near a sandbox when the rose whip snaked around one of its ankles. Digging his heels into the asphalt, Kurama hauled on the whip with all his strength.

The monster tripped and fell heavily on its belly, the tips of its outstretched claws only inches away from the edge of the sand box where three little boys gaped at it, frozen in horror. The beast shuddered, exhaled, its breath ruffling the hair of the child nearest it, and then it quivered one last time and lay still.

On a park bench next to the sandbox an elderly couple, probably the grand-parents, grabbed each other's hands. As Kurama retracted his rose whip he also saw a group of young schoolgirls, distinctive in their brown and white uniforms, stop dead on the sidewalk, and stare. Behind them, an older, college aged boy, grabbed the hand of a small girl, undoubtedly a sister, and immediately began to pull her back the way they'd come as the girls in front of him began to shriek.

Kurama didn't blame them. The sight of an enormous green ogre crashing past you to die in the park wasn't something the average human was equipped to deal with as they walked home from school. He noted approvingly that the older boy had taken his sister nearly halfway down the block and out of harm's way while the older couple had jumped into the sandbox and were gathering up the boys protectively.

Hiei reappeared at Kurama's side.

"Well?" he asked, eyebrows raised at the conspicuous lump of green flesh on the lawn, pointedly ignoring the hysterical schoolgirls.

"We'd better get it out of here." nodded Kurama, grimacing slightly at the noise the girls were making.

"Can you make a portal?" asked Hiei, looking at the left side of Kurama's torso.

Kurama glanced down, noticing that he was still absently holding his injured side where the monster had knocked into him. He tightened his hand, gauged the amount of pain, and answered, "The ribs are merely bruised, not broken. I'll be fine."

Concentrating, he flicked his rose whip and caused a hedge to grow around the corpse, shielding it from view. Concealed from spectators' eyes, Kurama gathered most of his remaining spirit energy and opened a portal directly under the body, which dropped through it like a stone.

Nodding at Hiei to let him know it was time, he allowed the fire demon to step to the edge of the glowing hole and nonchalantly drop off into space. Taking a last glance around, Kurama followed. Within seconds the portal closed up after him disappeared.


	3. Back in the Spirit Realm

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho – plot or characters.

Note to reviewers: Thanks to Crystal Koneko and Cwolf2 for complimenting the fight scene. I had fun writing it!

To Topaz Dragon – good eye! While I don't usually write romance, I know authors who do, and my idol Skitzo-phrenick (author of 'Tears' and 'The Darkness Within') loves to pair off Hiei and Botan, so I leave in hints that Hiei likes Botan, though I don't usually go anywhere with it. I did the same thing in my last story (Opal Quest), it's subtle, but it's there if you're looking for it!

To Poltergeist Report 101 – Thanks for your honesty. Don't worry about not liking the plot. Different people have different tastes, and even an author you adore can sometimes write something that just doesn't appeal to you. (For instance, I love Dean R. Koonts, but his book "Night Visions" just didn't work for me. I never did finish reading it) Thanks also for calling me a 'great author'!

CHAPTER THREE: BACK IN THE SPIRIT REALM

"It's this way." Kuwabara nodded at a rift leading down to a steep gorge.

"Are you sure? Because we've been walking around for hours." complained Yusuke. "I'm tired, I'm hot, and I want food."

"I don't believe you, Urameshi! What's more important, rescuing Botan and the castle, or your stomach?" yelled Kuwabara, stamping impatiently down the rift in the dry grassy hill.

"Right now? My stomach."

Kuwabara splayed his hands out for balance and ran down the uneven ground to end up at the bottom. He turned to watch Yusuke take the last few feet in a series of jumps. They were now inside the gorge, standing by the edge of a narrow river, which ran through the center of it.

"Hey, what's this?" Kuwabara noticed the river.

"The River Styx." answered Yusuke, trudging over to kick a few pebbles into it.

"You mean like in the myth?" Kuwabara's head whipped from side to side, looking up and down the river. "Hey, where's Charon, that ferry guy you have to pay to get across it?"

"There is no Charon. What do you think Botan and the other ferry girls do? They don't call them ferry girls for nothing."

"Oh yeah." Kuwabara's eyes narrowed and he concentrated. He pivoted in a slow circle, then pointed upriver. "It's that way."

Yusuke squatted by the river, leaning against one of the many rocks jutting up at the river's edge. "You sure about this? Because we are in the spirit realm, you know. I bet almost everything around is giving off spirit energy."

"Not like this! This is bad energy."

Yusuke stretched his back, using the rock as a support. "Whatever." Stretch finished, he jumped to his feet in a quick, fluid motion. "Let's go."

The boys followed the river, through the twists and turns of the gorge, which rose up in sheer walls on either side.

"Hey, isn't that Koenma's head ogre?" Kuwabara paused in the middle of clambering up a large boulder. He got to his knees and then his feet and pointed down at the dirt trail that skirted the boulder and led into a crevice in the gorge wall. Halfway between the boulder and crevice stood a blue ogre with one horn in the middle of his forehead, wearing a spotted animal skin about its middle.

"Huh?" asked Yusuke, head appearing over the boulder's edge. He looked over to where Kuwabara was pointing and frowned. "Nah, that's not Jorge, that's another…"

At that moment, the blue skinned ogre on the path turned, saw them, and bellowed something as he pointed back at them.

From the crevice behind him, a large number of other blue ogres began emerging and fanned out along the path, holding cudgels.

"Uh oh." said Yusuke, climbing to his feet. "Something tells me these guys aren't feeling very friendly."

At that point the ogres attacked, and there wasn't time for any more talking. Kuwabara was first to fall into the river, carried there by an ogre who'd tackled him, knocking him off the boulder. He came up sputtering, kneed the ogre in the head and splashed his way back to land.

Yusuke used his spirit gun on half a dozen of the blue ogres, before two of them rushed him, backing him into the river where he skidded to a stop, knee deep in water, then reversed direction and charged, throwing them in opposite directions.

The blue ogre who'd bellowed the order saw that the battle wasn't going his way, and fled into the crevice in the side of the gorge wall. Yusuke, occupied with three blue ogres circling him, yelled at Kuwabara to follow.

The boy obeyed, leaving a trail of moisture from his sopping clothes, but wasn't able to catch up with the ogre. As soon as he reached the crevice there was a rumbling noise and half the cliff face came tumbling down into the gorge.

"Kuwabara!" Yusuke kicked out, breaking one ogre's kneecap, ducked under another's punch, elbowed him in the ribs, and took out the last one with a punch to its solar plexus. He ran to the pile of rock and dirt that had once been an opening.

A mass of carrot-red hair emerged from the rubble, followed by the rest of Kuwabara's head and shoulders as the boy crawled out of the dirt.

Yusuke stepped forward, grabbed his hand, and hauled him out the rest of the way.

"Thanks." Kuwabara said, leaning over and coughing dust out of his lungs.

"Don't mention it." Yusuke moved back, surveyed his friend, and burst out laughing.

"What?"

"You look like the abominable mud monster." scoffed Yusuke.

Kuwabara brushed ineffectively at the inch of wet dirt plastered all over his school uniform. "Stop laughing!"

"Why? It's funny." chortled Yusuke, "You need a bath."

Kuwabara stood up and glared, then brightened. "Then let's both take one." Ducking his head, he butted it into Yusuke's middle and rushed, landing both of them in the river Styx.

"Hey!" Yusuke came up sputtering and swearing. He caught sight of Kuwabara, already swim-walking to the shore and followed. Grabbing him by the shoulder, he yelled, "What'd you do that for?"

There was no response. Kuwabara stood still, staring down at one of the ogres who'd been knocked unconscious, lying half in, half out of the water. Yusuke let go of Kuwabara and stared as well.

The blue ogre was now multi-colored, both blue and green with purple bruises beginning to form. The half that was underwater had turned green while the half outside the water was still blue.

Yusuke dropped to his knees and poked at the ogre's leg where it hit the water. Holding up his finger, he saw that the tip was blue. "Body paint?" he asked incredulously. "Why would a green demon want to paint itself blue?"

Kuwabara pointed at the pile of rubble that had nearly killed him. "Forget that, I want to know what's in that cave over there."

Yusuke shook the paint off his finger and stood. "So do I."

It took the two boys hours and most of their spirit energy, but they managed to blast through the rubble and find the entrance to the cave.

It was empty except for some hastily discarded boxes, and crumpled up papers. However, the back of the cave was a mass of openings, tunnels leading off in different directions.

Yusuke groaned. "We'll never catch that fake blue ogre now. He could be anywhere."

"Hey Yusuke! Look what I found." Kuwabara held up a package of beef jerky, scavenged from one of the boxes.

"What else is in there?"

"Hmm. Blue paint, more beef jerky, matches, some sticks – I think they're supposed to be torches, tea bags, a mug, papers, and that's it."

"Pass the beef jerky. I'm dying here," said Yusuke. "Time for a dinner break."

The dinner break turned into a nap break when the boys realized the ogres had left behind some animal skin blankets. The torches made a great campfire, serving to help dry their clothes.

Sitting companionably around the fire, wrapped in separate cocoons of ogres' blankets, the conversation dwindled as they stared into the fire. Kuwabara was first to nod off. Yusuke realized his friend was asleep when his repeated "Hey, Lunkhead" remarks didn't get a response. Yusuke smirked, shrugged, and settled down on the sandy floor of the cave to follow Kuwabara into slumber.

Yusuke woke first the next morning. Stepping quietly out of the cave, he washed in the river, dressed, and returned to wake Kuwabara. When "Hey, get up already!" and nudging the sleeping boy with his toe didn't work, Yusuke decided to take a more direct approach.

"What the…?" sputtered Kuwabara, leaping up from his nest of blankets as a mug full of river water was poured over his head. He stuck his fists out in front of his face, like a boxer, and glared wildly around the cave.

"Glad to see you're awake…finally." Yusuke said. He threw the mug aside and grinned. "Nice boxers. I'd never have figured you for a polka dot kind of guy."

Kuwabara glanced down, gulped and turned a fiery shade of red that rivaled his hair color. "Yusuke! I'm gonna get you for this!" He dove back under the blankets and grabbed his dried clothes from off a rock by the dying campfire. "As soon as I get dressed."

After a breakfast of leftover beef jerky, the two boys decided to explore the tunnels at the back of the cave. Kuwabara sensed several different bad spirit energy signatures leading down different tunnels, indicating that other ogres had escaped with the blue one who'd fled into the cave and caused the rockslide that concealed the entrance.

They searched for hours, but most of the tunnels either ended in other artificial rockslides or came out onto deserted locations in different areas of the Spirit Realm.

It wasn't until late in the afternoon that they came upon a tunnel that led to a trap door outside of Koenma's castle.

"Looks like that one was cleaned out too." Yusuke remarked, pulling himself up through the trap door, which opened up behind a hill, shielded by small shrubs and clumps of brown foliage.

"Yeah. Whoever was in there is long gone." grumped Kuwabara, hauling himself out onto the coarse yellowed grass next to the tunnel's opening. "And here I was spoiling for a fight."

Though it was obvious a large number of ogres had lived in the caves (remembering the smell from the latrine portion of the caves, Yusuke involuntarily wrinkled his nose) they hadn't found any ogres remaining. There were only abandoned supplies and scrape marks along the floor where boxes and belongings had been hastily moved.

"Sheesh. How long were we in those caves?" Yusuke asked, noticing that the late afternoon light was beginning to turn to dusk. "It's getting dark out here."

Kuwabara stood and shuddered, turning slowly to face the hill that obscured the lower half of Koenma's castle. Without answering, he walked up the hill as if in a dream.

"Kuwabara?" asked Yusuke as the boy walked past him to stand at the top of the hill, placing his hands on his hips, gaping at the castle.

Yusuke followed quickly. "Hey! Answer me! You're really freaking me out. What's…" his voice trailed off as he saw what had captivated Kuwabara's attention.

There, a few minutes walk away, stood the castle, rising splendidly next to the gorge that concealed the River Styx from view. Above it towered a dark light, a glowing miasma that twisted and swirled slowly around the top of the castle, capping it like a mushroom.

"It's spirit energy." said Kuwabara, his voice dulled with shock. "Lots of it, more than I've ever sensed in one place before." He shuddered again. "It ain't natural."

"What do you mean?" asked Yusuke belligerently, glad of something, anything to argue about to take his mind off the dreadful swirling mass. "We're in Spirit World. Of course there's going to be a lot of spirit energy around. There's nothing 'unnatural' about that."

A frown creased Kuwabara's forehead. He shook his head slowly as he turned to look at his friend. "Something's messing with that spirit energy. It's being…altered somehow. It doesn't feel normal."

Yusuke opened his mouth to make a flippant remark when movement near the castle gate caught his attention. "Look!"

A portal opened in the air directly in front of the castle gate. It started as a pinpoint of light, expanding rapidly to a large circle shape, edged by golden light.

A huge blackish green ogre fell through the portal and landed gracelessly on the yellow grass. The thing's body was so long that its claw tips touched one of the gateposts as it landed in a still heap. A blue ogre poked his head around the gatepost and started in surprise at the sight of the monster lying on the grass.

A few seconds later Hiei appeared, landing with a thump as though he'd jumped down to earth. He stepped through the portal and stalked determinedly forward past the dead ogre. He made it several steps, then swayed and slumped to the ground as the spirit energy above him gathered in a clump, overshadowing him and began to slowly descend.

Too far away to do anything, Yusuke and Kuwabara watched helplessly as Kurama appeared next, stepping lightly out of the portal, which closed behind him. Spotting Hiei, Kurama rushed over, waving aside the blue ogre in the gateway who dithered a moment before running back inside the castle.

"Come on!" Yusuke smacked Kuwabara on the shoulder and took off down the hill, hearing his friend striding after him. Kurama was bent over Hiei, one hand on the small black clad demon's neck, the other held out in front of Hiei's mouth, checking for a pulse and breath.

Just as Yusuke reached the bottom of the hill, the blue ogre reappeared in the castle gateway and gestured wildly to someone standing behind the gate, then pointed at Kurama and Hiei.

Kurama looked up just as a swirling mass of the miasma high above the castle detached itself and descended rapidly upon him, covering him. Yusuke saw through the misty swirls that Kurama had fallen on his back to the ground.

Blue ogres emerged from the castle and, reaching into the miasma, grabbed both Kurama and Hiei, also encased in miasma, and dragged them into the castle, shutting the gate firmly behind them.

END OF CHAPTER THREE


	4. Finding the Culprits

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho plot or characters.

Thanks to reviewers: Poltergeist Report 101 – Thanks for the compliment and for hanging in there and reading the last chapter! Crystal Koneko – Glad you liked the last chapter! As for the chance of coupling Hiei and Botan…I'd love to try it but I absolutely stink at writing romance. Skitzo-phrenick and Tuatha Faerie both do a much better job at Hiei/Botan romances than I ever could, so I just leave in hints that Hiei likes her instead.

CHAPTER FOUR: FINDING THE CULPRITS

Kuwabara and Yusuke stood before the closed, locked gate of Koenma's castle. Without having to discuss it, they concentrated their spirit energy, Yusuke by pointing, Kuwabara by summoning his spirit sword, and blasted through the heavy gate.

Inside the courtyard they stopped, appalled. Dead ogres lay scattered all around. All were either red or blue skinned. Some had been blasted by spirit energy, but most had been stabbed. Miasmic cocoons like the ones that had enveloped Hiei and Kurama when they'd been dragged through the gate, lingered here and there over some of the bodies.

"Uh." a blue skinned ogre moaned. The miasma floating over him was faint, and beginning to shred into wisps and float away.

Yusuke was kneeling at his side in a moment. He could see at once that the ogre was dying. "Take it easy." he told the ogre, lifting its head a little off the ground.

The ogre squinted at him. "The spirit detective?"

"Yeah. What happened here?" Yusuke asked, noticing that Kuwabara had come up behind him, to stand with fists clenched in impotent rage.

"I don't know. The last thing I remember is Botan showed up and…"

"Botan?" Kuwabara burst out. "Then Kurama and Hiei did find her."

"No. I didn't see those two. Botan came in to see Koenma just as I was leaving. She was carrying a big bag. I thought she was bringing him a present, and I wanted to wait around to see it, but I had to go give a message to the guards. The next thing I know this smoke stuff starts pouring through the castle." The ogre paused to cough.

Yusuke's eyes darkened as he saw that the ogre was coughing up frothy blood. He held the creature until its coughs subsided and let it continue. "It was so weird. I was just thinking how much I wanted a snack break when that mist hit me and suddenly I was sitting down at a table eating! At least I thought I was. Then I felt this horrible pain, and I looked down and saw this sword being pulled out of me."

The ogre clutched at the wound in his chest, which set him to coughing again. "I really…wanted….that…snack." he wheezed. Then with a last hacking cough, he shuddered and lay still.

Yusuke gently used his fingertips to close the ogre's eyelids, and then laid the body to rest on the ground.

He rose slowly to his feet. The ogre's body lay on the ground before him. The last wisps of the miasmic cloud that once surrounded him had completely dissipated, making the body seem somehow more defenseless and pitiful. "I don't know who these guys are, but I'm going to get them." Yusuke promised the ogre softly.

"Yeah." Kuwabara agreed. "That goes double for me."

Skirting the body, they made their way to the castle's tall front door, kicked it open, and entered a long entry hall.

Pillars the size of thousand year old redwood tree trunks lined the walls, and the ceiling rose up to an angle, the center of which was carved to look like vertebrae. Bodies lay along the hall floor. The blue and red skinned ogre bodies were still, with no miasma hovering over them, but here and there a few green skinned ogres lay encased in miasma extending two or three feet outward on all sides of their bodies.

"Hey, Yusuke!" Kuwabara rushed over to two bodies lying by a pillar near the door. Twin sets of miasmic clouds hovered over them. Look! It's Kurama and the shrimp! Let's get them out of there."

"Kuwabara, wait!" yelled Yusuke, but it was too late. Kuwabara walked into the misty haze surrounding Kurama's body. Growling irritably, Yusuke followed, stepping through the miasma's edge, and stopped dead.

He was standing on a street lined with trees. It was a typical afternoon. Kids rode by on bikes. Smells of cooking came from the open windows of houses. Yusuke did a complete 180-degree turn. "What the…?"

Behind him the scene was fuzzy with haze. If he squinted, he could see, dimly, the faint outlines of Koenma's hall.

"Hey! Over here!" Kuwabara yelled, attracting Yusuke's attention. He walked over to the orange haired boy, who was standing on the sidewalk across the street. Just as he joined him, a small red van with "Tokyo Fire Department" emblazoned on the side pulled up to the curb and stopped.

The door opened, and a fireman got out. He was dressed in orange pants and jacket striped here and there with yellow reflective tape, and he was wearing the firemen's distinctively shaped white helmet. He waved to the other firemen still in the van, then turned and walked slowly up to a house two doors down from where Kuwabara and Yusuke stood.

The door opened before he reached it and two small children, a red headed boy and a little girl with light brown hair, both barely past the toddler stage, ran at him and tackled his legs. He placed his hands on their heads, tousling their hair as they grinned up at him.

A woman with layered light brown hair, the same color as the little girl's hair, came to the door carrying a dishtowel. The fireman raised a hand to remove his helmet, leaned forward and kissed her tenderly before herding the children into the house and closing the door behind them. It was Kurama.

Kuwabara stood with his mouth open for a moment, then sputtered, "I, you, hey, wasn't that? Did he just…?"

"Way to go Kurama." muttered Yusuke admiringly.

"Wait a minute. Kurama's not that tall, and we only saw the back of his head. It might be someone else." said Kuwabara doubtfully.

"With hair that red? Doubt it." Yusuke punched Kuwabara lightly on the shoulder. "Come on. Let's go check it out."

They made their way to the front door. Reaching it, Yusuke raised his fist to knock on it, lowered it sharply, and watched in astonishment as his fist disappeared through the door.

He pulled it back quickly, thrust it through again, and grinned at Kuwabara, who'd jumped back about a foot. "It's not solid."

Kuwabara paled. "What if we're not solid? What if we're ghosts?" he asked in horror.

Yusuke smirked. "Been there, done that. It's not so bad. Come on." he said, and walked through the closed door. Gulping, Kuwabara followed.

They came out into a small living area. Kurama, the older, taller version, lay on the floor on his back, lifting the little girl up and down over his head, to her delight. The little boy sat near his feet, moving a toy car, with all-engrossing concentration, over Kurama's feet.

The woman Kurama had kissed appeared from a doorway leading to the kitchen and walked through Kuwabara, who jumped again and shouted in surprise.

"Dinner will be ready soon." She smiled down at Kurama, who paused in lifting the child to smile back. Then the woman turned and walked back through Kuwabara to the kitchen.

"Are you sure we're not ghosts?" he demanded.

Yusuke squatted down by Kurama, and called out the fox demon's name.

The older Kurama didn't answer or pause at all. There was no indication that he'd heard a thing. Just to be sure, Yusuke waved his hand through Kurama and the little girl, and still got no response.

"They can't hear us or see us." he told Kuwabara flatly. "Let's go." He stood and strode back out through the closed door.

"Hey, wait!" Kuwabara ran after him, catching up with him at the sidewalk. Yusuke continued across the street and made for the misty, smudged looking area.

"There's nothing we can do here. If we want to snap him out of this, we're going to have to go after whoever put him under this spell." he told Kuwabara, ending the sentence as he exited the miasma.

Finding himself back in the hall, Kuwabara faltered a minute then followed Yusuke as he began walking away. He caught sight of Hiei, encased in his own miasmic cloud. "Shouldn't we check up on short stuff too?" Without waiting for an answer, Kuwabara steeled himself and walked into Hiei's cloud.

And out into a snowy alpine meadow. In the middle of the meadow a large green dragon was being turned into sushi sized portions by a very young looking Hiei. The younger version was still wearing black, but the white headband was gone. Behind him, clasping her hands together nervously, was a girl child with ice blue hair and red eyes.

Dragon disposed of; the younger Hiei knelt down by the girl.

"I will always protect you." he told her in a high, child's voice.

The girl smiled and held out her arms to be hugged.

At that point, Kuwabara stumbled backward as Yusuke yanked him out of the miasma by reaching in and grabbing the collar of his school uniform.

"Knock it off, Kuwabara. We don't have time to mess around. Someone's been going through and knifing the ogres stuck in those dream worlds. If we don't get whoever's causing the dreams, they could be stuck in them forever."

Kuwabara shook off Yusuke's hand. "Why aren't we stuck in them?"

Yusuke shrugged and set off again down the hall. "Who knows? Maybe because we're human."

They set off down the hall and came to a pair of very tall doors. Kuwabara paused and frowned.

"What?" asked Yusuke.

"They're there. I can sense them. I think it's a trap."

Yusuke smiled wolfishly, and after a moment, Kuwabara did too. Without further discussion, they charged and hit the doors head on.

Green ogres came at them from every direction once they hit the doorway. Fueled by their rage, Kuwabara and Yusuke fought untiringly, Kuwabara single-mindedly plowing through any opponent who got in his way, and Yusuke strategically taking out any ogres who appeared to be commanding others.

There was one greeenogre, slightly larger than the others, who stood behind a blue one in the center of the room. Because the larger one's head rose above the others' he made a tempting target, but it was the blue one who really caught Yusuke's attention, because it bore a striking resemblance to Jorge, Koenma's head blue ogre.

Yusuke fought his way toward them. The blue one panicked, shrieking orders to the green ogres to defend him as Yusuke came closer. Finally, the blue one turned and ran. The large green one stared after him, dumbfounded, then noticing how close Yusuke was, fled after the blue one.

Three green-skinned ogres charged Yusuke, attempting to block his pursuit, but he jumped forward, feet connecting with the center one's chest, and the other two went down with their leader like bowling pins.

He caught up with the pair as they tried to turn a corner and escape down another hall. The large green one dodged aside, stumbled and fell, causing the Jorge-like one to pause to look back and see what had happened. Yusuke shot a blast of spirit energy that hit him full in the chest.

The ogre howled, clutched at his torso and fell, writhing in pain. As he rolled around on the ground, Yusuke pointed his spirit gun again, then paused as the blue ogre's features shifted. The broad forehead and cheekbones that had made him look so much like Jorge narrowed, and his skin turned from blue to green.

"Shape shifter, huh?" Yusuke prepared to shoot again, but the ogre convulsed and lay still, so he turned to his right, where the larger green ogre had fallen, only to find he'd disappeared.

A small green ogre with pointed ears, only slightly larger than Koenma, was scrambling to its feet. Yusuke did a double take, glancing back at the now green ogre on the floor behind him, and realized what happened.

The little green ogre child was glancing furtively to either side, looking for an escape route. Yusuke straightened to his full height and glared down at it, challengingly. "Who're you, kid?"

The ogre child thrust his chin out. "I'm not a kid! I'm the Wishmaster!"

"Wishmaster huh? So what do you do, wish people to death? Wish you were taller?"

"Argh!" The little ogre stepped forward, tried to kick Yusuke in the shins, and landed on his behind when the boy moved aside, dodging the kick easily.

Yusuke squatted by the ogre, who sat up, rubbed his sore backside, and glared. "I bet you were scared of me before when I was bigger!"

"But you weren't bigger, were you?" Yusuke pointed out reasonably. "You just looked bigger." He nodded over his shoulder to the demon on the floor. "He do that for you?"

The little Wishmaster looked mutinous for a second, then nodded reluctantly. "That's Rolf. He can make himself look like anyone. And if you stand near him, he can make you look different too."

Yusuke's eyes narrowed. "He didn't happen to make himself look like a ferry girl with blue hair earlier today, did he?"

The ogre child's eyes widened in surprise, then glared. "Why should I tell you anything?"

"Because I'm not pounding your face into the floor." Yusuke told him. "Though that could change."

Kuwabara ran up at that moment. "Yusuke! Where'd you go? Hey. Who's the little kid?"

"I AM NOT A LITTLE KID!"

Yusuke stood to face his friend. "This is the Wishmaster. He says that shape shifter over there disguised himself as Botan. That's how they got into the castle."

"Hey, if he disguised himself as Botan, he had to have seen Botan." Kuwabara grabbed the ogre by the shirtfront and hefted him up to eye level. "Where is she, you little punk?"

"I don't know! I swear!" The ogre child cried out, kicking his feet in the air.

"Don't lie to me. That sleazeball must have kidnapped her so he could copy her." Kuwabara shouted.

Yusuke tugged at Kuwabara's sleeve. "Hey. Go easy on him. He's just a kid."

Kuwabara glared, but dropped the little ogre, who landed, once again, on its behind.

"Ow! Rolf only has to see someone once to copy them! He doesn't need to see them after that. Besides, he's not the one in…" The Wishmaster gulped, and stopped.

Eyes narrowed, Yusuke continued for him. "The one in charge, right? So who is that?"

"Uh, I have to go now." Wishmaster began scooting away on his rear, only to stop when he ran into Kuwabara's legs. Looking up, he saw the sandy haired teen glaring down at him, gulped, and stopped trying to get away.

"Where do you think you're going, short stuff?" asked Kuwabara menacingly.

"Spill it." Yusuke commanded.

The ogre child stared into his unflinching eyes, slumped his shoulders and conceded defeat. "He calls himself 'Enhancer'. I don't know his real ogre name. He had Rolf smuggle me in to Koenma's office. I had to be carried in a bag!" The ogre's voice took on an aggrieved tone. "It smelled bad and I could hardly breathe. But I did it. Rolf captured Koenma and then we went to open the side gate so the rest of us could get inside."

"Rest of us who?" asked Yusuke.

"The green ogres, of course." said the ogre child, as if it were obvious. "Green ogres never get a fair shake. It's always the blue or red ones who get the good castle jobs and the best land in Spirit World. We're finally taking back what's ours." he ended, sounding like he was quoting a line he'd heard often.

Kuwabara looked astonished. "An ogre is an ogre. Who cares what color they are?"

The small green ogre bristled, so Yusuke intervened. "Get on with it. You opened the side gate then what?"

"We let Enhancer and the rest of us come in. Most of us had painted ourselves blue so we'd blend in better since there aren't many GREEN ogres working in the castle." The child glared meaningfully at Kuwabara, then continued. "I stayed by Enhancer. He had me put a wish spell on everyone. He's so cool. I've only ever been able to show people their wishes for a minute or two at a time, and only the wish they happen to be wanting at that minute, but when he's around I can trap people in their wishes. Enhancer says when I'm older I'll be able to do even more!"

Kuwabara hunkered down on all fours by the ogre. "Wishes, huh?" He smiled wolfishly. "Then tell me what I'm wishing for right now."

Wishmaster shrank back in alarm. "I can't read humans, and I don't want to!"

"Knock it off, Kuwabara. We need more information." Yusuke stared down at the ogre child. "What happened next?"

"Enhancer walked me through the castle. I put everyone in a wish trance. Finally we got to Koenma's office and I put the big blue one, Jorge, in a trance too, then I did Koenma. He was a hard one. He kept wishing to kill Enhancer, but I didn't think Enhancer would like that so I went for the wish he was making when Rolf and I first walked in instead."

"How did you keep everyone in a trance?"

"Usually I couldn't, but that's what Enhancer does. He makes whatever power you have stronger. That's why Rolf could make me look bigger. I think he likes me more than Rolf though." The ogre smirked, self-satisfied. "Because when I put people into wish trances, Enhancer can draw off their spirit energy and use it however he wants."

"Then why'd he kill so many of them?"

For the first time, the little ogre looked a bit uncertain. "I think he finished draining their energy. Or maybe…" His voice lowered. "Maybe he just didn't like them very much. He really hates anyone who isn't green like us."

"That sick…" Kuwabara began, glowering.

The Wishmaster jumped to his feet. "Hey, it's a dog eat dog world. Kill or be killed. The Green ogres have to be strong if they want to survive."

Yusuke crossed his arms. "So you kill off all the blue and red ogres so only green ones are left and then what?"

The little ogre glanced back at the boy. "Then we take over the castle. We paint some of us blue and red so when Koenma's dad comes back he won't know anything's wrong. Then he'll go away again, and leave the castle to us."

"And what about Koenma?"

"Oh, Rolf was going to impersonate him. We figured we'd have months to study Koenma's moves, and Rolf's really good at copying voices."

Yusuke stared hard at the Wishmaster. "And what then? What was going to happen to Koenma once Rolf figured out how to be him?"

Wishmaster shrugged. "Kill him, I guess."

Yusuke lowered himself deliberately to Wishmaster's eye level and said, "You'd better hope nothing has happened to Koenma." When the ogre child gulped and began to look scared, Yusuke stood up and continued. "If anyone's going to kick that annoying toddler's butt, it's going to be me. Come on!"

Wishmaster blinked. "where to?"

"You put our friends into wish trances? Well, now you're going to get them out." He grinned at Kuwabara and the odd-looking trio, two tall boys and one short ogre, set off back down the corridor.

A short time later they stood before Kurama and Hiei. Wishmaster snapped his fingers, and the miasmic clouds wisped away like mist before a strong wind.

Kurama got to his feet first, looking a little groggy. Hiei stood more slowly, gathering his energy and standing in stages until he stood upright.

Yusuke quickly filled them in on the situation. "So, this Enhancer guy's got to be in Koenma's office. I say we go get him."

"Agreed, but what will we do if he uses Koenma as a hostage?" asked Kurama. "He'll be in a trance state, unable to defend himself."

"So what?" Kuwabara asked. He reached down and pulled the Wishmaster up into the air by his shirtfront, bouncing him negligently with the strength of one arm. "We got a hostage too."

"Let me down!" yelled the little ogre, kicking and punching at Kuwabara furiously, with absolutely no effect.

"Let him go." ordered Yusuke, feeling like a mom separating two fighting siblings. "He's on our side now, right?" Yusuke leaned over to glower at the Wishmaster, who nodded furiously. "When we get to the office, he's going to release Koenma from the wish trance."

The ogre grimaced angrily, but nodded.

"Then let's go." Yusuke turned and led the way. The Wishmaster came next, being dragged along by Kuwabara, with Kurama and Hiei following, walking side by side.

As Kuwabara dragged him away, the ogre child looked back at the two and smirked. "Enjoy your dream, fireman?" he asked Kurama. "Ow!" he finished with a yelp as Kuwabara shifted his grip and decided to drag him along by the ear instead of the upper arm.

"A fireman?" Hiei asked incredulously.

Kurama paused almost imperceptibly, then shrugged. "It was firemen who took my mother to the hospital the first time she collapse from her illness. I suppose I was…impressed by them."

"A fireman?" repeated Hiei, evidently still in shock.

Kurama sighed, and explained. "When mother first collapsed I didn't know what to do to help her, so I called the first emergency number she had written next to the phone. It was the fire department. They came immediately, and they knew exactly what to do. All I could do was stand back and watch. It was the first time I'd ever felt completely helpless in my human body. I suppose you could say they became my heroes. I've taken much in my life as a Youko thief. It was interesting to think of a job that gives back to people instead of taking from them."

"Hn." said Hiei, still unconvinced.

"And what was your wish?"

Before Hiei could answer, Kuwabara called out, "He was a little kid in a meadow playing with another little kid."

Hiei's expression darkened, and he reached for his sword as Kuwabara went on. "And the other little kid looked a little like my Yukina! She's my one true love, so find someone else to play patty cake with, shorty!"

"I will kill him." growled Hiei from between clenched teeth.

Kurama grasped his sword arm and reminded him in a low voice, "Remember, Kuwabara doesn't know that Yukina is your sister. Do you really want to tell him?"

Hiei considered a moment, and then dropped his hand from his sword. "The idiot may live another day.

END OF CHAPTER FOUR


	5. Freeing Koenma

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho, plot or characters.

Note to reviewers: Cwolf2 – Thanks for the compliment on characterization, and especially the one about my story being like the actual series. I try very hard to be true to the characters' personality types, and it's nice to hear that someone thinks I'm doing a good job with it.

Pocky and Fred – Your comment about fight scenes made me laugh! Sorry, but I think I'll just keep leaving in 'Hiei likes Botan' hints. I'd love to have them smooch, but I seriously stink at writing love scenes so rather than try I'll take the cowards way out. I'm glad Pocky liked the fireman dream sequence, and thanks to Fred for the comment.

Crystal Koneko – I'm glad you liked the chapter, and as for the romance…see my above comment to Pocky and Fred. I would if I could!

Tsume-Hiei luver – To answer your questions, the miasmic cloud was descending on poor old Hiei, and it sent him into a dream state. Since Kurama's demon spirit is in a human body, it took a little longer for the miasmic cloud to have an effect on him, otherwise he'd have been out like a light too as soon as he stepped under it. And yes, the little kid was Yukina. I think if Hiei could have a wish, he'd wish he'd grown up with his sister, protecting her.

CHAPTER FIVE: FREEING KOENMA

Yusuke, Kurama, Hiei, Kuwabara, and a very reluctant Wishmaster made their way through the castle's ready room where ogres lay encased in miasmic clouds. Empty desks and overturned chairs showed that the ogres had perhaps attempted to flee when the cloud appeared.

Passing through the area quickly, they reached the corridor outside Koenma's office to find the hallway filled with determined looking green ogres.

One, their leader, stood in the doorway of Koenma's office. With a wave of his hand, he motioned to the horde of green ogres to charge.

The members of Team Urameshi braced themselves. Kurama slipped up by Kuwabara and handed him a length of vine taken from his rose whip.

"Use this to bind the Wishmaster. We can't afford to lose him in the battle."

Kuwabara grasped the vines automatically and frowned. "Hey, why do I have ta baby-sit?" he groused, but Kurama had already gone past him to join the battle.

The ogres put up quite a fight, but they were disorganized, unused to working together.

Gradually, the team worked its way closer to the office. The ogre's leader, The Enhancer, raged at his troops furiously, but it was no use.

Yusuke had just paused after bashing two green-skinned ogres' heads together when The Enhancer clapped his hands and ordered five green ogres lingering near the doorway to come to him.

Curious, Yusuke absently ducked a punch and sent an ogre sprawling by kicking it in the ribs as its non-connecting punch caused it to over balance and stumble past.

The Enhancer raised its hands toward the five ogres. A black-green light began to glow from his palms. The light moved and enveloped the five ogres, drawing them together.

"Well that's something you don't see every day." muttered Yusuke as the light took on a distinctly lizard-like shape and filled the hallway from top to bottom.

"Hiei." called Kurama softly, lunging back after a whip strike that took out two opponents. He flicked the whip to point at the glowing black light where the five ogres' bodies were beginning to merge into one fleshy mass.

In a blur of motion, Hiei took a standing jump and streaked over the heads of the ogres battling below. Eyes fixed on his target, he sliced through what would have been the monster's head as he passed it midair. The ogres inside the dark light howled and fell to the floor, writhing as their bodies separated. The black light shimmered and dissipated.

The Enhancer stood, arms still raised, palms facing outward at the place where the monster had been forming. His mouth was slack with shock.

Landing gracefully before the ogre leader, Hiei noted his reaction and smirked.

Within moments the remaining ogres, also shocked by their leader's failure, were defeated and the members of team Urameshi stalked forward, converging on The Enhancer who snarled and retreated quickly into Koenma's office.

He tried to slam the door shut behind him, but the tall, heavy doors, designed to be imposing, refused to close quickly, so the ogre jumped back to the center of the room, coming to a stop in front of Koenma's desk.

There the toddler lay amid ever-present stacks of papers, encased in the now-familiar though much smaller, miasmic cloud. Behind the desk stood another green ogre, nervously clutching a knife.

"Stay back," roared The Enhancer, "or the boss gets it." He snapped his fingers, and the green ogre behind him lowered his knife into the miasmic cloud until it rested a mere inch above the sleeping toddler's throat.

Hiei moved forward, sword raised, and said, "Tell me where Botan is and I may let you die quickly."

The Enhancer's green skin turned a considerably lighter shade as he paled. His throat moved as he swallowed audibly, then bristled, recovering his poise. "What would I need with a stupid ferry girl? When this place is mine I can have all the ferry girls I want."

Yusuke walked forward into the room, hands in his pockets, looking completely at ease. "Hey Kuwabara," he called to the last member of Team Urameshi to enter the office, "This guy is so stupid he doesn't even know when he's beat."

Kuwabara, dragging the child ogre behind him by a trailing piece of vine yelled, "Then let's educate him!" He sat the Wishmaster down by turning around and shoving down on his shoulders. The little ogre scowled as his hindquarters hit the floor abruptly, and began trying to bite through the vines binding his wrists together.

Yusuke, Kurama, and Hiei fanned out to form a half circle in front of the Enhancer. Kuwabara remained by the doorway, standing in a direct line behind Kurama, with the Wishmaster further concealed from The Enhancer's view behind his legs.

Yusuke's voice turned hard, "He's also too dumb to realize what's gonna happen to him if he doesn't hand over Botan to us right now."

"I tell you I don't have the ferry girl!" shouted the Enhancer. "I heard she'd disappeared and I knew if she showed up again Koenma would want to see her right away so I just had Rolf use her image to get inside. That's all!"

The Enhancer's eyes went darting between Kurama, Hiei, and Yusuke, resting on the human boy at last, having identified him as the leader.

Yusuke gave him another hard stare then said, doubtfully, "I guess I believe him. What do you think, Koenma?"

The Enhancer slowly pivoted around, slack jawed, to see his accomplice doubled up on the floor, breathless with pain as he clutched his middle, the knife lying discarded at his side.

Right in front of the Enhancer, his back to the front edge of the desk, Koenma stood in his teen-aged form. The brown haired boy, tall enough to look the ogre directly in the eyes, stared at him speculatively while incongruously sucking on a pacifier. Then Koenma matter-of-factly bent his elbow back by his side, made a fist, and shot it out from his shoulder, connecting squarely with the center of the Enhancer's face.

The Enhancer's nose broke with an audible 'crunch'. His eyes crossed, and he fell over flat on his back, unconscious.

Koenma retracted his arm and glanced at his fist. His knuckles were smudged with a trace of blood.

"That hurt." he observed.

Yusuke laughed. "Nice punch, for a beginner."

"What?" asked Kuwabara, peering around Kurama. He took a look at Koenma and did a double take. "Geez! I hate it when he does that! Lose the pacifier already. It looks dumb when you go all tall like that."

Koenma pulled his pacifier out of his mouth, squinted at it considering, then said, "No."

Popping it back in his mouth, he continued. "I like it. I'm keeping it." He stepped up to the Enhancer's unconscious form, splayed out on the floor, and kicked at it. "Now someone get this garbage out of my office. Where's Jorge?"

A snore sounded from somewhere behind Koenma's desk. Yusuke, Kurama, Kuwabara, and Hiei crowded around. The accomplice ogre whimpered and got on all fours, hunch backed, and tried to crawl towards the discarded knife. Hiei jumped on the ogre's back, flattening him, and continued to stand there as casually as if standing on the floor itself.

The rest of the team stared down at the area behind the desk. There on the rug, sleeping peacefully, lay Jorge, the big blue ogre.

"What's wrong with him?" asked Yusuke sharply. He glanced over his shoulder at the Wishmaster. "I thought everyone was supposed to wake up when the spell gets broken."

"I did break the spell!" yelled the short ogre indignantly. "Maybe he's just tired!"

Yusuke leaned forward to shake the blue ogre. He was stopped by Koenma, who caught his arm. "Wait a minute. Are you telling me Jorge was caught in a dream just like I was?"

"Duh!" yelled the Wishmaster, still struggling irritably with his bonds. "Only it's not a dream, it's a WISH."

Koenma's eyes narrowed. "I think I'd like to see this wish."

"Whatever." said Wishmaster, shrugging. Immediately the air above Jorge's supine blue body took on a shimmering cast. Then an image, projected from the blue ogres' subconscious, appeared. In that image, Jorge lay on an animal skin couch. Ferry girls with various shades of pastel colored hair clustered around him. Some fanned him with large ostrich plumed fans, others gazed adoringly at him, while still others peeled grapes and handed them to a ferry girl who looked remarkably like Botan. The Botan-ferry girl smiled and fed each grape to Jorge. Into the scene a toddler sized Koenma trundled in, bowed, and asked, "Can I get anything for you, master?"

"Ogre!" bellowed the teen-aged version of Koenma, and kicked his sleeping blue-skinned underling smartly.

"Ow!" yelped Jorge, then sat up groggily. "Koenma, sir, what happened?"

"What happened," Koenma informed him icily, "is that while you were sleeping, my castle was over run with green ogres. Now get up and get rid of them!"

"One moment," Kurama came alongside Koenma. "I'd like to ask Jorge a question, if I may?"

Koenma nodded, and addressed his next question to the blue ogre still seated on the floor. "In your dream state, you dreamed of Botan. Why?"

Jorge gasped. "How did you….?"

"Never mind about that. Just answer the question." snapped Koenma, and began pacing.

"I like Botan. She's always nice to me." explained Jorge simply. "Unlike some people I could mention." he muttered, glancing at Koenma's back.

Koenma chose that moment to wheel around and begin pacing in the opposite direction. "What was that?" he asked suspiciously.

"Nothing! Nothing!" gulped Jorge, raising his hands in defense.

Koenma stared, beady eyed, then said, "So what are you waiting for? Organize a work crew and kick those blasted green ogres out of my palace!"

As Jorge scurried past, Kuwabara grabbed the Wishmaster by the collar at the scruff of his neck and held him aloft. "What about Pipsqueak here?" he asked.

"I suppose I could let Hiei kill him." said Koenma, sucking on his pacifier reflectively.

"Hey, he's just a kid." objected Yusuke.

"A kid, hmm?" Koenma shot Yusuke a look, then marched over to where Kuwabara was holding the little ogre, who wilted visibly as he drew near.

"How old are you in human years?" he barked at the ogre child.

Wishmaster rolled his eyes up and tilted his head, concentrating. "Two hundred maybe?"

"Sheesh," exclaimed Kuwabara. "Are you trying to tell me this little punk is two hundred years old?!"

"Yes," replied Koenma. "Like most creatures from the Spirit Realm, ogres mature less quickly than humans. Though their lives can be cut short just as easily." Koenma gave the ogre child a meaningful glare, then went on. "However, if he'd like to come and work for me, I suppose I could find some use for his talents. There would, however, be certain rules he'd have to follow."

"What rules?" asked the ogre, sticking his chin out in a pathetically unconvincing attempt to look belligerent.

Koenma began ticking them off on his fingers. "Number one: you must be absolutely loyal to me. Number two: You must swear absolute obedience to me. Number three: No mouthing off or complaining. Number four: You provide your own dental and health insurance. And Number five: You will NEVER under any circumstances reveal what my wish was."

At number five, several members of team Urameshi exchanged disappointed looks.

"Yeah. OK, I'll do it." Wishmaster's head bobbed up and down as he nodded vehemently.

"Release him." Koenma ordered Kuwabara.

"Ow!" yelped Wishmaster as Kuwabara dropped him on the floor. The vines binding him dissolved when Kurama gestured from across the room.

The red head frowned thoughtfully once his vines had released their captive, and asked Yusuke softly, "Do you believe Jorge is innocent?"

"Yeah," said Yusuke, watching as Wishmaster attempted to kick Kuwabara in the shins for dropping him. "For one thing, he's blue, not green. And I just can't see Jorge kidnapping Botan. He's too scared of Koenma."

Kurama's emerald eyes took on a look of concern. "Then if neither Jorge, nor the Enhancer took her…?"

"Who did?" finished Yusuke.

END OF CHAPTER FIVE


	6. Searching

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho plot or characters

Note to reviewers: Tsume-Hiei luver – a miasma is an infectious or noxious emanation, and in the story the miasmic cloud is simply a physical manifestation of Wishmaster's ability to put people into wish trances. With the Enhancer's help, the whole castle (apart from humans or ogres on Enhancer's side) fell under the spell and the cloud-like miasma siphoned off their energy and sent it swirling above, plumping up the cloud even more.

Eternal Musing – Glad you liked the story so far and I promise to have it finished by New Years.

Cwolf2 – Jorge always cracks me up too!

Carapheonix – What's the request? I tried emailing you but no reply yet!

Crystal Koneko – All shall be revealed in chapter seven.

Pocky and Fred - Jorge definitely needs a vacation! Just out of curiosity, where would you send Botan and Hiei on a honeymoon? Do I sense a story idea you're considering? As for the fighting scenes, this chapter's a bit short, but there's one last fight in the next LONGER chapter.

CHAPTER SIX: SEARCHING

Yusuke and his team stood before Koenma's desk. The prisoners had been taken away, and each of the team had given his report of the last day's events to the toddler ruler of the Spirit Realm. Kurama and Hiei had just finished their reports when the argument started.

"Well if that big dinosaur-sized ogre thing was there waiting for Kurama and Shrimp Boy, it must've known they were coming. So Enhancer's goons must've given Botan the address as a set up. That's how they knew Kurama and Short Stuff were coming." Kuwabara finished his argument triumphantly.

"As usual your stupidity is showing. Enhancer knew nothing of Botan or her location." Hiei grated out.

"Hey, at least I'm trying to help instead of just standing there taking up space – not that you take up all THAT much space." Kuwabara raised his hand about four feet above the floor, approximating Hiei's total height.

Hiei's eyes narrowed and he began to growl, but Kurama's voice cut in diplomatically. "Possibly, but there is an alternative."

"Spit it out! I haven't got all day." Koenma, back to his usual size, was also back to his usual temper.

"The ferry girls' schedule is hardly a secret in the castle. Any ogre could have looked at the list of addresses assigned to Botan after overhearing our plans to investigate her last known location. We did speak of our plans in the hallway outside, where anyone might have overheard us. As I recall, several ogres were in the vicinity. Assuming the Enhancer's forces decided to divide and conquer, it wouldn't have been difficult for them to send that creature out to dispose of whichever of us showed up at Botan's last address."

"Or it could have been someone else we don't know about." Koenma pushed irritably at a stack of papers on his desk. "Meanwhile I'm still short a ferry girl. And we can't ask Enhancer. He's still out cold." A pleased glint appeared in the toddler's eyes at the memory of his knockout punch.

"Either way, we're wasting time here. I say we go to that address and find out if Botan ever made it there." Yusuke said, his dark eyes bright. "Hanging around here is boring me to death."

"Fine, go!" Koenma waved them out of his office.

They were almost out the door when Koenma's voice stopped them. "Yusuke, just one more thing. Don't come back without my missing ferry girl."

Yusuke grinned, and walked out.

The residential street looked surprisingly calm that afternoon. The park was nearly deserted, save for an old man feeding the pigeons from a park bench.

The only sign that a fight had occurred was the broken fence where the monster had crashed through on its way to the park across the street. Someone had cleared away the bits of wood, but the hole in the fence remained.

The woman who came to the door when they knocked was middle-aged and slightly overweight with a pleasant face. At her side, peering shyly around her mother's hip was a young girl wearing a dress with oversized pockets that looked like teddy-bear faces.

"Yes?" asked the woman doubtfully as her gaze took in the four mismatched teens standing on her front porch.

Yusuke nudged Kurama who went smoothly into the story they'd prepared. "Good day. We're doing a science project about the effects of city pollution on young children. May we ask you a few questions about your daughter?"

The woman grasped the door handle tightly and began to shake her head. "We're awfully busy right now. My mother is ill and we need to go visit her as soon as my husband gets home."

Kurama smiled. "I understand, and I promise we won't take more than a few minutes of your time."

She hesitated, clearly not about to let them inside, but left the door ajar and asked, reluctantly, "What exactly do you need to know for your project?"

Kurama got out a notebook he'd brought from his car to lend credibility to their story. As he did, the little girl left her mother's side and took a sprig of red berries from out of her pocket.

Giggling, she held them out to Yusuke, who dropped to his knees to take them with a grin. "Thanks, kid."

The woman quickly reached out to touch her daughter's shoulder to get her attention and exclaimed, "Ayami! I told you not to pick those berries from off the tree at grandma's house! She's very particular about that tree!"

The little girl stuck her lower lip out.

Kurama reached down and took the sprig from Yusuke, holding it up to show the woman. "That's very wise of you, ma'am." he said softly. "These berries are quite poisonous."

The woman gasped, then pulled her daughter near. "Ayami." she breathed, shocked. Gratitude in her eyes she told Kurama, "Whatever it is you'd like to know I'd be happy to tell you." She pulled the door open wider, her doubts forgotten. "Would you like to come inside?"

"Wait, did you say Ayami?" broke in Kuwabara. "We're looking for Mariko."

"You've only just figured that out?" muttered Hiei. "It's the second time she's said the girl's name."

Kuwabara bristled, but before he could reply, the woman spoke again.

"Mariko?" she repeated. "Oh, Mariko lives three doors down. She and Ayami are friends, aren't you dear?" She ruffled her daughter's hair very gently and continued. "It's very sad. Mariko lives with her older brother. Their parents were killed in a car wreck a year ago. Thankfully, the father worked for an insurance company so with the insurance money Hiroshi was able to keep the house and continue to go to college. He takes care of Mariko all by himself too."

Kurama and Yusuke exchanged looks, then Kurama glanced back at the woman and bowed slightly.

"We must go. Thank you for your time." he told her.

"But what about your questions?" she asked.

"I'm afraid we are supposed to interview only the families on our list." improvised Kurama. "In order to be scientific we need to use the random sample of names from the area that our teacher gave us."

The woman blinked, clearly puzzled, and the little girl looked about ready to cry.

Yusuke dropped to his knees again and confronted her. "Hey kid. Sorry we don't get to interview you. Maybe next time, OK?"

The little girl nodded, then reached out and gave Yusuke a quick hug as her mother watched in astonishment.

"My goodness! Ayami usually doesn't take to strangers that quickly." she said.

Yusuke rose. "I guess I just have a way with kids." He grinned, and turned to go.

Ayami and her mother stood in the doorway and waved goodbye to them as they trooped down the front walkway to the street.

"So what now?" asked Kuwabara as the team paused for a consultation.

"Now we go find Mariko." Said Yusuke, and led the way down the sidewalk.

END CHAPTER SIX


	7. The Jeweler's Treasure

At long last, the final chapter! Happy New Year everyone! Special thanks to my reviewers – Tsume-Hiei luver, I'll answer your questions anytime! TopazDragon, I agree with you, leaving things to the imagination is ultimately more satisfying than being bopped over the head with blow by blow details, and thanks for the vote of confidence in regards to writing romances. Cwolf2, thanks as always for your kind words, you're such an encouragement! Crystal Koneko, I hope this last chapter lives up to your expectations! I always have such a struggle writing endings. Carapheonix, I got your email and I still think you should write that story – you'd write a great one! Eternal Musing, Pocky and Fred, enjoy the last chapter, and thanks for reviewing the earlier ones!

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho characters or plot.

CHAPTER SEVEN: THE JEWELER'S TREASURE

Three doors down turned out to be a small post World War II era home. The tiny lawns on either side of the walkway beyond the low front gate were green, but spotted with weeds. Two lackluster shrubs sat in pots on either side of the front door.

The boy who came to the door when they rang the bell was older, in his early twenties. He'd evidently been studying because he carried a half open book, his place held by his forefinger stuck between the pages. He was thin, and wore dark pants and a blue shirt, un-tucked and buttoned part way up over a white T-shirt.

"Yes? Can I help you?" he asked, blinking curiously at Yusuke, Kurama, Kuwabara, and Hiei standing behind the others, tense and ready for action.

"We're here about Mariko. Your sister." said Yusuke.

"Mariko?" repeated the boy, glancing over his shoulder. Very faintly from the back of the house came the sound of a little girl singing.

The boy glanced back at them. "What do you want with her?"

Kurama spoke, going back to their cover story. "We're doing a school project about the affects of city pollution on young children, and we'd like to ask you a few questions. But first," Kurama took a step back and nodded at the house next door with the broken fence. "Do you mind telling us what happened over there?"

"Yeah," Kuwabara burst in. "Seen anything strange around here lately?"

"Uh, no." The boy looked doubtfully at them. "It was like that when I came home yesterday. There were some weird rumors going around, but I don't believe in ghosts or monsters or things like that."

"Really?" asked Kurama politely. "That's curious considering that you saw the creature who destroyed the fence yesterday."

"What?" The boy's eyes changed from blank incomprehension to a sharp, intelligent look, and his grip on his book tightened.

"I saw you on the sidewalk yesterday with your sister." Kurama told him. "You were standing behind a group of school girls. Isn't that right, Hiei?"

"Humans all look alike to me." growled Hiei. "Make him tell us where that stupid ferry girl is so we can finish this."

"I don't know anything about a ferry girl," said the boy softly, "but if you'll wait here a moment, I'll go ask my sister." With that he shut the door.

Yusuke opened his mouth to talk, but Kurama stopped him by raising a hand and leaning toward the door. They heard the boy's footsteps walking slowly and deliberately at first, and then came the sound of a book dropping to the floor and the footsteps broke into a run.

"He's getting away!" shouted Kuwabara, as he surged toward the door, inadvertently pushing Kurama and Yusuke before him.

"Hey! Watch it!" snarled Yusuke, his face mashed against the doorframe. Yusuke tried to elbow Kuwabara away while Kurama slipped under the sandy redheaded boy's arm and moved to the side.

"You're in the way." shouted Kuwabara, pounding on the portion of the door visible over Yusuke's head.

"Baka!" exclaimed Hiei, and grabbed Kuwabara by the hem of his school uniform jacket and pulled him away so hard that he landed on his rear and slid several feet down the walkway with a "Hey!"

Yusuke and Kurama stepped aside as Hiei took a running jump at the door and landed on it feet first at a right angle. The door didn't stand a chance. It came off its hinges and fell flat inside the home's entry hall, Hiei landing on top of it poised like a surfer on a surfboard.

The black clad demon was off the door the moment it landed, and took off down the hall.

Without sparing a glance at Kuwabara, Yusuke and Kurama followed. The hallway ran the length of the home, ending in a door to the back yard. By the time Yusuke, Kurama, and Kuwabara arrived, Hiei had already smashed through it as well as the back gate and was half way down the alley in a blur of motion.

When the three others rounded the corner at the end of the alley they found themselves at a crossroads. The alley they were on crossed another street, which led back toward the park on their right and a warehouse district on their left.

From the left came the high thin, wail of a frightened child. The boys ran that way.

Hiei had the boy and his sister cornered against the back wall of a warehouse building which, judging by the cracked pavement of the empty parking lot, was abandoned. The fire demon stood before them, his katana unsheathed and held above them.

The boy was on his knees hunched over his sister, protecting her. All Kurama, Yusuke, and Kuwabara could see of her were her legs sticking out from behind her brother, the top of her head over his shoulder, and one hand clutching a red plush Inuyasha doll. The girl was whimpering.

When Hiei's blow did not fall, the boy looked over his shoulder. Hiei continued to stand, sword raised, as the others ran up.

The boy was the first to break the tense silence. "If you have to kill someone. Kill me. Leave my sister out of this."

Even Hiei blinked at that.

"Hey! We're the good guys. We don't go around killing people. Who do you think we are?" asked Kuwabara belligerently. "I may be the toughest kid at Sarayashiki Junior High, but I don't go around killing little kids. I like little kids." Kuwabara glared at the older boy. "And kittens too." He added as an afterthought.

Hiei lowered his sword, but kept it unsheathed at his side. "I have no such qualms." He told the boy. "If you tell me where the ferry girl is, I may let you die quickly."

At that, the little girl let out another wail and began crying in earnest.

"Look." Yusuke stepped forward. "We just want to know where Botan is. You tell us, and we'll let you go."

The boy hugged his sister tighter, shushing her. "I don't believe you. I've seen that Grim Reaper before. Every time she comes to our street someone else dies. I saw her flying toward my sister while she was playing in Ayami's yard. She was coming to kill her."

"Whoa. Wait a minute. You're saying you can see Botan when she's flying around on her oar?" Yusuke asked incredulously.

The boy nodded.

"How?" asked Yusuke.

Kuwabara pointed. "I know! It's that thing around your neck, isn't it?"

The boy withdrew his hand from around his sister and clutched at something under his T-shirt. "How did you…?"

Kuwabara strutted. "I knew it! I can sense a lot of spirit energy coming from whatever that is."

Kurama knelt carefully by the boy, keeping a good three feet away so as not to crowd him. "What is it that you wear around your neck?" he asked in a soft, compelling voice.

The boy's eyes glittered. He blinked, not sure how to react to Kurama's polite demeanor, but answered. "It's my mother's wedding ring. She's dead."

"I know." Kurama acknowledged gravely. "You have my condolences. This ring, do you mind my asking where your father got it?"

"He's got Botan and we're talking jewelry?" interrupted Kuwabara.

Yusuke, who'd been listening intently, absent-mindedly punched Kuwabara in the head, knocking him off his feet, where he landed next to Hiei, who muttered "Baka" and stepped back.

Taking this all in, the boy's expression grew wary again, and his gaze flitted from Kurama, to Yusuke, to Hiei, and back again while he answered. "My grandfather was a jeweler. When my father decided to ask my mother to marry him, he asked grandfather for a special, one of a kind wedding ring. Grandfather found an unusual stone that was part of a meteorite that fell from the sky in Africa. Because it wasn't a diamond, no one else wanted it. Grandfather found a way to cut it and put it in a setting."

Still speaking quietly, Kurama asked, "When did you discover there was something different about the ring?"

Mariko's sobs were beginning to diminish. Her brother placed both hands over her ears gently and answered Kurama. "When my parents died, the police gave me the few personal effects that survived the crash." He swallowed, then continued. "I had to identify their bodies. They were burned…almost beyond recognition, but their wedding rings survived. They were the only thing that still looked…normal. I started wearing both their rings around my neck, to remember them. That's when I started seeing things."

"What things?" growled Hiei, interested despite his disdain for humans.

"Demons." The boy answered, staring at Hiei. "Usually just small ones who ride on people's shoulders and influence them. I changed my major in college from pre-med to accounting to get away from one of the professors who had one. And because it takes less time to get a business degree. I'm responsible for Mariko now. I have to get a job soon."

He glanced down at his sister, who was burrowing into his shirtfront. He looked back at Kurama. "I saw the ferry girl when she came to take old Takeshi's soul. She hovered at his window. I watched her pull his soul out the window and fly away with it on her oar. She only comes to kill."

"Botan doesn't kill people. She only shows up to pick up souls after people die." Yusuke informed him. "I should know. She picked me up when I died."

The boy stared at Yusuke, frowned, and opened his mouth to state the obvious objection, that Yusuke was alive and standing before him.

Yusuke raised a hand to stop him. "I got better. Long story."

"May we see this ring?" asked Kurama politely.

A curious expression came over the boy's face. Then his face went blankly polite.

"Sure." he said. Removing his hands from his sister's back, he gently pushed her away from him so her back was resting against the warehouse wall. She sniffled, clutched her doll to her chest, and stayed seated on the ground as he pivoted slowly on his knees, and put his hand down his T-shirt, to pull on the cord around his neck.

Kurama smiled at the girl who watched him with frightened eyes, and hugged her Inuyasha doll harder. Because his attention was on the child, the blast of light took him completely by surprise.

It burst out of the ring in a blaze, enveloping the red head before he had a chance to get out his rose whip. In a second, the light was sucked back into the ring, along with Kurama.

The boy immediately held out the ring toward Hiei, who was already moving in, swinging his Katana in a downward slash.

Hiei's sword never found its mark. His dark spirit energy slammed into the white light from the ring, and sparks showered, but the white light enveloped both the dark lighted sword and Hiei's small form until both were completely surrounded and sucked into the ring's stone.

Yusuke grabbed the boy by the shirt, leaned his face in, and shouted, "You give them back or I'm pounding your face into the pavement."

"Yeah!" Kuwabara came to stand by Yusuke. "I don't care what you do to the shrimp, but Kurama's a nice guy." Kuwabara rolled up his sleeves and made a fist. "Looks like you need a lesson in manners, punk, and I'm just the one to teach ya."

The little girl, who'd been watching wide-eyed, shrieked, dropped her doll, and launched herself at Kuwabara, grabbing onto his legs. "Don't hurt my brother! Please don't hurt Yota! Please!"

"Huh?" Kuwabara lowered his fist and a look of alarmed panic came into his eyes as the little girl began to cry again.

"Oh man. Uh." He patted Mariko's head awkwardly. "Don't cry. Yusuke? A little help here?"

"Deal with it." Yusuke told him. "Yota and I have a little business to take care of."

Yota stared back at Yusuke without fear, the ring still in his fist.

"Oh man. What do I do?" Kuwabara wailed, patting the little girl on the back.

"Calm her down." Yusuke suggested. "Talk to her about your kitten or something, just get her out of here. She's not going to want to see this."

Yota nodded in agreement, watching Yusuke steadily.

Kuwabara glanced at them. "OK, right. Kittens." He reached down and grasped the little girl under her arms to pick her up, and set her down on his hip. Staggering slightly, he walked over to the warehouse wall and snagged her Inuyasha doll. "Can't forget this now, can we?"

Mariko grabbed her doll, and stared over her shoulder at her brother, who took his gaze off Yusuke long enough to look at her and yell, "You stay with him and be a good girl, Mariko. OK?"

"Yeah. We'll just go right around the corner and stay right by this building and I'll tell you all about my kitten. I've got the best kitten in the world! Did you know that kittens…."

Kuwabara's voice faded as he carried the little girl around the side of the building and out of earshot.

Yusuke dropped his grip on Yota's shirtfront.

Eyes never leaving Yusuke's face, Yota leaned back from his kneeling position, and came to his feet in the quick, fluid motion that only a trained martial artist could execute with grace. As he got to his feet he landed in a ready position, knees and elbows slightly bent.

"So you know how to fight, huh?" asked Yusuke, a note of approval in his voice.

"A little" replied Yota warily. "I haven't been to the dojo in a while for obvious reasons."

"Don't think I'll go easy on you because you lost your parents." Yusuke warned him. "I never had a father, and my mother is usually out partying, so you won't get much sympathy here."

"I don't want sympathy. I want to save my sister's life. If I win, you and your friends go away and leave us alone. That includes the ferry girl too." Yota said.

"And if I win?" asked Yusuke. "What do I get – the ring?" he continued sarcastically.

"You take my life instead of Mariko's. If the ferry girl needs souls that badly, she can have mine. You can have the ring too if you like." said Yota harshly, taking Yusuke's suggestion seriously.

Yusuke stared at him. "No deal. I can't control Botan. The only one who can do that is Koenma. Not that it matters, since I'm going to kick your butt."

He charged. Yota dodged, but Yusuke dropped and kicked his legs out from under him.

Yota dropped, but was already rolling backward so Yusuke's next kick slashed through air instead of connecting.

Then Yota attacked, forcing Yusuke to raise his hands to block.

The fight went on for some time. Yota's martial arts training was able to counter Yusuke's bare fisted street brawling style most of the time, but eventually Yusuke's superior training with Genkai began to tell.

Yota's breath became labored. Yusuke's fist connected with his face, knocking him down, and he wasn't able to dodge the next kick that connected with his ribs, so he grabbed onto Yusuke's leg and pulled him off balance, elbowing him in the face as he went down.

Both of them had bruises and cuts when they stood for the last time.

"You want to give up now?" asked Yusuke.

Still breathing hard, Yota simply shook his head.

At the same instant they both attacked, grabbling and pummeling each other in a clinch. Yota began to falter, and finally it was just Yusuke landing the punches.

When he realized his opponent wasn't responding, Yusuke stepped back. Without the support, Yota fell to the ground, barely conscious. He lay on his back, gasping.

Yusuke squatted next to him. He brushed his fist against a sore spot along his jaw. "You landed some good ones." He told the older boy.

Yota closed his eyes and didn't respond.

Yusuke sat, and stared at the warehouse. "I never had a sister or a brother, but if I thought someone was going to kill them, I'd probably have done the same as you."

For a while Yusuke thought Yota wasn't going to answer, then he said. "She's all I have left. Without her I'm alone."

"Alone isn't so bad."

"You're not alone. You've got friends."

"Come on. You've got to have friends too." Yusuke glanced at the other boy curiously. "Even before I met Kurama and the others, I always had Keiko."

Yota opened his eyes and stared at the sky. "I thought I had friends, but after my parents died they all just stayed away. They didn't know what to say, and suddenly I didn't have anything to say to them."

"That's rough." Yusuke said after a moment.

Yota was silent. His breathing evened out. Then he spoke. "You'll be wanting your friends back now, I guess."

"Yeah."

The older boy sat up slowly, and grimaced, holding his side. Wincing, he used his other hand to pull on the string around his neck until he grasped the wedding ring.

"Can I see?" asked Yusuke.

Yota pulled the string over his head and handed it to Yusuke. One of the rings, a simple gold band, fell away down the string as he held the other between two fingers. Yota's mother's ring was a round, moon shaped cabochon-cut rock held in place by two gold leaves on either side. The rock was smooth and rounded, without facets like a regular diamond, yet it reflected the light better.

As Yusuke looked at it, it seemed to him that there were chambers inside the stone. As though it were somehow faceted on the inside. Glints of colors appeared inside the silvery exterior of the rock. He saw flashes of pink, black, and red, but whenever his eye tried to focus on them, they disappeared. A brighter flash of pink and light blue swirled by then faded.

"I think I saw Botan!" exclaimed Yusuke.

Yota reached over and took the ring back. "She's very agitated. I think if she could burst through the stone she would." He ran his thumb over the top of the stone and closed his eyes, concentrating.

"What are you doing?"

Yota opened his eyes. "Thinking calming thoughts at her. I tried to tell her she's about to be released, but I don't know if she understands. It's hard to communicate through a rock. I'm pretty sure the stone acts as a conduit to another dimension. I'm taking a geology course, but this stone isn't like any rock on earth." He held it up and stared into it. "I can get feelings off of it if I concentrate." He looked at Yusuke. "She isn't hurting in there, just irritated."

"Irritated I can handle." Yusuke told him. "Botan is always nagging at me. It's not like that's news."

Yota tried to smile, and winced, as the movement pulled at a cut by his mouth. "Help me up?" he asked, holding out his hand.

Yusuke sprang to his feet and hauled the older boy upright. He swayed a bit, but managed to stand on his own.

Holding the ring out in front of him, Yota concentrated. A bright burst of light came from the ring. It fanned out, making a large circle shape on the warehouse wall. It grew brighter, then disappeared back into the ring, leaving Botan, Kurama, and Hiei standing there, blinking.

"Yusuke! What have you done?" Botan exclaimed, looking past the teenager. "That one isn't due to die for a long time!"

"What?" Yusuke turned and saw that Yota had collapsed.

Botan rushed by him to kneel at the fallen boy's side. Yusuke dropped to his knees next to her as Hiei and Kurama came over.

The ferry girl brushed her ponytail back over her shoulder and began fussing over Yota, cradling his head in her lap. "He isn't like you, Yusuke! He doesn't have a lot of natural spirit energy, and completing three trans-dimensional transports is tough enough if you're from the Spirit World, let alone a normal human being. Which reminds me," Botan glanced around curiously. "Where's Kuwabara?"

"I still say we kill him slowly." Hiei growled, staring down at the human boy.

Botan sighed exasperatedly. "As I told you and Kurama both, Yota Mitsumura didn't hurt me. He just stuck me in the other dimension. And he spoke to me every day so I wouldn't get lonely, or rather he communicated." Botan's forehead wrinkled as she tried to find the right words. "It was more a sense of emotions than actual words, which made it really difficult to talk back!"

"He stole you. He deserves to die." said Hiei flatly.

"Why Hiei," Botan looked at him, wide eyed.

"Baka ferry girl." Hiei harrumphed and stalked off. Botan stared after him, surprised.

"Don't mind him." Kurama told her. "Being captured makes him a little testy."

"Oh. Well, as I was saying…"

Yota blinked and sat up, moving away from Botan as soon as he realized whose lap he'd been lying on.

"The ferry girl." he breathed.

"That's me! In the flesh!" quipped Botan cheerfully, and shook her finger at him in mock anger. "I should be really mad at you, you know, locking me away like that."

"I'm sorry." mumbled Yota. "I just couldn't think of any other way to keep you from killing my sister."

"Oh yes, that." Botan grew serious. "I really do have to take her soul. She's past due, you know."

Yota raised his hand, then let it drop to the asphalt. "Why her? Why not take me instead? I'll gladly go in her place."

Botan's eyes grew soft, and she touched Yota's shoulder. "It doesn't work that way. There's a reason these things happen. You may not understand, but…"

"I don't understand." Yota shrugged off the ferry girl's hand, his voice rough with emotion. "She's just a little girl."

"Yeah. Why not take him instead if he's willing to go?" asked Yusuke.

Botan sighed, and reached into her kimono to take out her notebook. Opening it in the middle, she read a moment then looked up.

"Your sister has myoblastoma cancer, Yota."

"What?" The boy's mouth opened in shock.

"She was scheduled to die when her friend Ayami fed her poisoned berries. The cancer would have been discovered at the autopsy. You saw me headed toward Mariko and took her away before Ayami could give her the berries." Botan closed her notebook with a snap. She sighed. "Sometimes there is a reason why things happen the way they do, even if you can't understand it at the time." She repeated patiently.

"Mariko." Yota's eyes filled with tears. He buried his head in his hands. "What have I done? What have I done?"

"Hey, you just did what anyone would do." Yusuke told him, glaring truculently at the ferry girl.

Botan rose to her feet and stepped aside to let them talk. Kurama watched her go, and saw her take out her compact sized spirit communicator, but stayed where he was, with the other two boys.

"But cancer! Why didn't I see it? How could I miss something like that? I was pre-med for two years!"

"You weren't a doctor yet. How would you know?" asked Yusuke reasonably.

"Yusuke is right." affirmed Kurama. "A college student, however gifted, can't be expected to make a diagnosis like that."

"You don't understand." Yota raised his head. "I was studying to become a doctor because I wanted to go into oncology. Cancer research. My grandfather died of cancer. I was going to find the cure."

Suddenly Botan was back. She dropped to her knees next to Yota. "I'm back! I've spoken to Koenma and he agreed to let me try something."

Yota blinked wearily. "What?"

"Well. Since you had me in your power and didn't harm me, Koenma said that I could try to use my spirit energy to heal Mariko." Seeing the hope rising in Yota's eyes, Botan continued swiftly. "I won't be able to get rid of the cancer completely, but I may be able to buy you some more time and who knows? Perhaps you'll be able to find the cure before Mariko's time runs out."

Botan waited expectantly for a reply, but Yota just stared at her dumbfounded, so she continued. "I know it isn't much, but it's better than nothing, don't you agree?"

"You'd do that for me?" Yota whispered. "After what I did to you?"

"Oh piffle! As if you did anything really bad. I quite enjoyed the time off of work." Botan told him merrily. "So what do you say?"

"Yes!" shouted Yota. He got to his feet and staggered. Yusuke caught his elbow to keep him from falling. "I'll go get Mariko."

"I'll come too." Yusuke told him, and flashed an approving grin at Botan as they began to jog to the corner of the warehouse.

Since the humans were leaving, Hiei walked back to join Kurama and Botan as Kurama asked Botan softly, "How did you get Koenma to agree to your plan?"

"Hmm?" asked Botan, smiling and waving at Yusuke and Yota's retreating forms.

"Koenma." Kurama repeated patiently. "How did you get him to agree to postpone Mariko's death by healing away some of her cancer?"

"Oh, that." Botan flashed him a half-guilty, half-mirthful smile. "I'm afraid I told a bit of a fib."

Hiei snorted.

Botan looked a bit more guilty. "I didn't exactly lie," she told them. "I just changed the time line around a little."

"What exactly do you mean?" asked Kurama, his green eyes sparkling with interest.

"I, ah, sort of told Koenma that Yota had already forced me to use my power to heal Mariko, but that he didn't hurt me, and since Mariko's death would have made him decide to change his major back to pre-med and become a research scientist again anyway, I thought that we could just leave things the way they are, or rather the way they will be once I heal Mariko."

Kurama laughed softly.

Botan grinned and continued. "And all Koenma demanded in return was that Mariko become a spirit detective when she gets a bit older. It's not exactly easy to find a soul that's either killed before its time or given a second chance. Souls that are eligible to become spirit detectives are rare."

"It looks like Yusuke will have an apprentice in a few years." Kurama observed. "That should prove interesting, don't you agree Hiei?"

An evil gleam came into Hiei's eye. "That baka with an apprentice? Hn."

Kurama smiled. "The next several years should be quite entertaining."

Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Yota, holding his sister's hand, came around the corner of the warehouse and began walking toward them.

"Oh come now you two!" Botan chided. "Yusuke may surprise you. I think it will be good for him to look out for someone else for a change. It may make him grow up!"

Botan giggled and ran forward to meet the boys, and the newest and youngest spirit detective apprentice ever recruited by the Spirit Realm.

THE END


End file.
